A typical PACS that is arranged at a site or building comprises a number of reader devices located at individual access points such as doors, gates etc. Other PACS components such as door contacts, electric strikes and exit buttons are usually arranged together with readers at access points. The readers are typically configured to be interacted with by means of an electronic tag that holds information related to a person that is in possession of the tag and the access rights and restrictions associated with the person holding the tag in the PACS. The electronic tag may be of several form factors, including a card. Tags and readers may operate according to any appropriate standard, including standards such as radio-frequency identification (RFID) and near field communication (NFC). Readers are connected, possibly via intermediate devices such as control panels, to a control unit. Data processing takes place in the control unit when a person presents a tag to a reader and thereby provides information via the reader to the control unit.
Even though a major part of the data processing involved in access control takes place in the control unit, a reader comprises processing and memory circuitry that is necessary for the reader to operate in the PACS. For example, a reader may contain computer code in the form of so-called firmware as well as other configuration data that is needed for being able to, e.g., communicate with tags as well as providing status information such as a battery charging level or other self-diagnostics that the control unit may need in order to control the PACS in a desirable way.
From time to time, the configuration of a reader may need correction or updating. Such correction or updating is achieved in present day PACSs by means of designated, i.e. special, tags that contain corrected or updated information that the reader reads when the designated tag is presented to the reader. This means that an operator who desires to update or correct the configuration of one ne or more readers will have to visit each and every reader at respective locations and present the special tag to the reader. Needless to say this will mean that, in a large PACS with a large number of readers distributed over a large area such as a multi-story building, the operator will have to spend an undesirable amount of time and effort.
A prior art system and method for remotely assigning and revoking access credentials using a near field communication equipped mobile phone is disclosed in US patent application publication 2006/0224901.
Some prior art systems, such as the “RFID access control reader with enhancements” disclosed in US patent application publication 2013/0214899 and “Cloud secure channel access control” disclosed in the international patent application publication WO 2013/110074, involve equipping a reader with a communication capability such that the reader connects to a remote computer server that provides configuration information to the reader. A drawback of such a system is that it requires comparably advanced processing capabilities for handling such communication.
Another prior art reader device and associated method is disclosed in the European patent application publication EP 2800067.